Jharkhand Journal of Development and Management Studies XISS, Ranchi, Vol. 17, No.1, March 2019, pp. 8023-8036 PANIYA TRIBE AS “THE OTHER”: EXPERIENCES FROM AN ANGANWADI CENTRE IN WAYANAD DISTRICT, KERALA Soummya Prakash1 This article attempts to understand the process of “constructing the other” among the Paniya tribe of Wayanad district, Kerala using the concept of “Orientalism” proposed by Edward Said. The process of “othering” as experienced from childhood by the Paniyas is studied with reference to an anganwadi centre in Wayanad district. As the Paniya children begin to reconcile with the state institutions, they are constantly reminded of the lower positions, they occupy in the linear scale of social evolution hierarchy. This reinforces the already existing stereotypes about them as uncivilized, unintelligent and primordial beings and makes them feel inferior in comparison to the non-tribes while simultaneously developing in them a significant amount of suspicion, and hostility towards any outsider. Analyzing the empirical data collected in a case study of an Anganwadi centre in a Paniya colony of Noolpuzha village, Sulthan Bathery block of Wayanad district of Kerala, this article discusses the experiences in the anganwadi centre where a child from a Paniya tribe is subjected to constant encounter between “the ideal” and “the other” as the child is introduced at an early age to the norms of the dominant society and subjected to constant reminder of being “the other” of that society. Keywords : Paniya, anganwadi, orientalism, othering process, marginalization, stereotypes. Introduction The Paniya tribe is the largest community among tribes in Wayanad, a north eastern district of Kerala, a place once predominantly inhabited by tribes. Paniya tribes are also economically marginalized due to their low asset holdings and dependency on wage labour for subsistence. Landlessness among them is the highest, further aggravating their vulnerability. This renders them a weaker position to negotiate any effective structural changes within their society. The number of landless tribes is more in north Kerala in comparison to south Kerala owing to the increased incidences of land alienation due to state sponsored migration of settler farmers from south to north Kerala under Grow More Food campaign during the Second World War. The State’s apathy towards tribal issues is due to the less and scattered population of tribes which inhibits them from asserting political pressure on the state (Kunhaman, 1989). Being erstwhile bonded labourers for several generations, Paniya tribes have considerable experiences of marginalization at the hands of the various colonizers to Wayanad since early times. 1 Ph. D student in School of Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Room no. 503, Vth floor, Hostel V, Naoroji Campus, Deonar Farms Road, Mumbai 400088. E-mail: [email protected], Mobile: 9960632962 8023 8024 Prakash As the tribes in general are considered backward, the state has been implementing various policies and programmes for their development. Anganwadi Centre is one of the state run institutions functioning at the grass-root level on a daily basis and instrumental in implementing the state’s development policies. It plays an important role towards the health and social development of woman and child. It also serves as a place to conduct gram sabha meetings where matters concerning the well-being of the people in the ward are raised and discussed. The anganwadi teacher assumes a significant role as she enjoys the right to approve the names of the beneficiaries along with the tribal promoter to avail housing scheme benefits1, flood relief compensation etc. Anganwadi is the first state institution where Paniya children socialize for the first time with other non-Paniyas like the anganwadi staff, and children from caste society. Hence this article aims to explore the socialization process of the Paniya children in the anganwadi centre which constructs the consciousness as “the other” among them right from their childhood. Orientalism is the framework used to understand the unfamiliar and the strange, and makes the people who appear different to us as threatening (Said, 1978). Orientalism is a discourse, which is not in direct relationship with political power but is constructed and sustained in an uneven exchange of powers in different forms. Such as political power (power of the dominant groups), intellectual power (modern knowledge systems), and cultural power (value systems). The dominant society in Kerala looks at subsistence economy as primitive while accumulation of wealth as modern and superior, which the tribal value system doesn’t subscribe to. Said had used it in the context of Middle East as to why and how do people (Occident) develop the preconceived notion about other people (Orient). He argues that there’s a politically motivated propaganda to produce stereotypes about the orient in art, literature, academics, and popular media to represent them as backward, savage and coward. “Demonization of orient culture” is another characteristic that Said attributes to Orientalism. It is articulated by making generalized and racist statement about the people. Thus, this article analyses the context of Paniya tribe as to how do the non-Paniyas, especially the dominant groups perceive the Paniya tribe as “orient” who appear different from the rest of the society. Review of Literature The Paniya Tribe: Contemporary and Historical Social, Economic and Political context Paniyas are numerically dominant among the tribes in Kerala, also considered as one of the most backward in terms of development. They Paniya Tribe as “The Other” 8025 are placed in the lowest echelons of social hierarchy among the tribes of Wayanad. Despite being the largest tribal community in the state (88,4504), most of them are landless. Out of the total population in Wayanad, 18% of them are STs, and among them, 45% are Paniyas5. The highest population of Paniyas live in Noolpuzha Panchayat of Sulthan Bathery Block in Wayanad district. Out of the total Scheduled Tribe population of 11480 in this panchayat, the population of Paniya tribe are 47496. The Paniya people live in settlements, which are referred as ‘colony’ in administrative parlance in this state. Noolpuzha panchayat has 215 tribal colonies, out of which 90 colonies belong exclusively to Paniya tribe7. Colonies are usually a small piece of land ranging from few cents to not more than 5 acres of land without Pattayam8. Located on revenue lands with only ‘Kaiavagasha Regha’9 and no Pattayam (land entitlement), there are places usually confined in between huge acres of agricultural field and houses owned by non- tribes who possess Pattayam. The Paniya tribes continue to maintain a relative isolation in their socio-cultural life by confining their interaction with the larger society mainly for the purpose of livelihood. Members of Paniya tribe still earn their living as labourer in the informal sector usually in agriculture and construction sector. Men among Paniya tribe generally work as plantation labourers in the tea, coffee estates in Wayanad, and ginger plantation in Coorg, Karnataka, whereas women usually go for MGNREGA work. Paniyas are erstwhile bonded labourers in Wayanad. Etymologically the term ‘Paniyan’ in Malayalam means the one who earn their livelihood through labour as ‘pani’ in Malayalam means ‘work’. It is also emphasized in the anthropological accounts of Aiyappan (1992) and Thurston (1909). The autonomous existence of tribes in Wayanad was affected with the immigration of Chetty’s and Goundar community between 8th to 14th century. They established exclusive rights on land by appropriating the exclusive access and use rights of tribes and imposed considerable area restriction. A large extent of land was brought under the control of the temples (Kjosavik & Shanmugharatnam, 2007). Thus began the enslavement of the Paniya tribe (Santhosh, 2008). Feudalism was established in Wayanad with the defeat of the Vedar Raja by the Rajas of Kottayam and Kurumbranad, and Janmi-Kudiyan10 system was established in the late 14th or early 15th century (Johnny, 2008). Thereby the entire land became the property of the kings, and Nairs who were brought as custodians, became the Janmis. It continued till Wayanad was invaded by Mysore Sultans in the mid-18thcentury (Kjosavik & Shanmugharatnam, 2007). The customary rights of Paniya tribe over the land and forest was appropriated. From shifting cultivators, Paniya tribes were now turned into bonded labourers 8026 Prakash during the medieval period in which an entire hamlet was tied to a particular landlord for generations and also known by the name of the landlord whom they served. Then wages were paid in kind (Aiyappan, 1992). Faced with scorn, disdain and hate, they have always lived a life where they were treated as inferior to the rest of the society. Due to deceit, oppression and exploitation they continue to suffer not only at the hands of non-tribes but also from those tribes like Mullakurumars in Wayanad whose socio-economic and political status is higher than Paniyas. In the contemporary context, Paniyas are highly suspicious towards any outsider i.e any non-Paniya. Anganwadi centre: Symbol of development The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme launched on 2nd October, 1975, is one of the flagship programmes of the Government of India and represents one of the world’s largest and unique programmes for early childhood care and development. It is the foremost symbol of country’s commitment to its children and nursing mothers, as a response to the challenge of providing pre-school non-formal education on one hand and breaking the vicious cycle of malnutrition, morbidity, reduced learning capacity and mortality on the other11. Each project aims to provide a package of services viz. supplementary nutrition, immunization, health checkup, referral services, education, and non-formal education in an integrated manner. Beneficiaries of the services are preschool children, expectant and lactating mothers and women in age group of 15-44 years.